No Burning Bush

In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama let his predecessor have it yesterday. It was subtle, but it was clear. With the outgoing President sitting only a few feet behind him, President Obama blamed much of America's current problems on an era of “of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age" and, in an obvious reference to Guantanamo and the suspension of rights for anyone suspected of terrorism, a willingness to suspend our ideals "for expedience's sake."

“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord," the new President said. "On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn- out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

He said from now on Americans must make decisions based on science and not ideology and that our military power does not "entitle us to do as we please." He criticized policies that "use energy to strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”

He said the current economic crisis showed how “without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control” and that the nation has to extend the reach of prosperity to “every willing heart, not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.”

Personally, I found it exhilarating that, after eight years of policies based on exploiting our fears, I heard a President reject “as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.” And, after eight years of hearing a President dividing the world between Americans and those who hate us, I found it refreshing to hear a President offering to “extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

In an analysis that appeared in the New York Times today, David E. Sanger wrote that President Obama's speech "must have come as a bit of a shock to Mr. Bush, who knew his policies had been widely criticized, yet rarely over the past eight years had to sit in silence listening to a speech about how America had taken a tragic detour. "

Actually, I think the truth rolled off Bush much as it has throughout his presidency. In fact, when he returned to Midland yesterday, Mr. Bush told an awaiting crowd: "“When I walked out of the Oval Office this morning, I left with the same values that I took to Washington eight years ago; when I go home tonight and I look into the mirror, I’m not going to regret what I see.”

And that, in summation, will always be Mr. Bush's greatest flaw, which makes him either a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions, a puppet of the Chaney-Rove ideological machine or just plain stupid. History will provide the answer to that one.

Obama party more variety show than concert

The We Are One gala is underway and already it has featured appearances by Denzel Washington, Mary J. Bilge, Laura Linney, Martin Luther King III and Bruce Springsteen. But it appears that each of the performers are going to get one song -- it's not going to be a concert so much as a variety show. That's OK, because I got to see Bruce perform a nice E-Street Band-less version of "The Rising" (interesting choice there) along with a stirring choir that I didn't get an opportunity to identify.

1:56 p.m.: Bettye Lavette (who deserves much wider recognition) and Jon Bon Jovi are dueting on "A Change is Gonna Come."

2:07: James Taylor and friends sing "Shower the People" following Tom Hanks' (with a Marine Corps orchestra) tribute to the words of Abraham Lincoln and a short talk on compassion from Marisa Tomei.

Now it's off to Austin to pick up the granddaughter. Yeah!

Obama party free on HBO

President-elect Barack Obama's pre-inaugural party today at the Lincoln Memorial will be televised live by HBO and is free to anyone with cable or a dish. That's right, you don't have to be an HBO subscriber to watch it. Why should you bother? Because it will feature concert performances from Bruce Springsteen and U2 and you can't get much better than that in one afternoon -- NFL playoffs notwithstanding.

He still believes in a "promised land"

Bruce Springsteen has undertaken a one-man acoustic mini-tour on behalf of presidential candidate Barack Obama. Here he stops in Columbus, Ohio where he is introduced by former astronaut and former senator John Glen, says a few words and sings a few more.

It all culminates a week from Thursday when The Boss joins Billy Joel for an Obama rally at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The joint concert, the first time the two have ever performed together, will be held the day after the final Obama-John McCain debate which will take place just a few miles away at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, N.Y. Tickets for this show start art $500 and run as high as $10,000. However, I've heard all the tickets have been sold, although some are now being offered for $250,000. Yikes.

That didn't take long

Here's Barack Obama's first TV ad eminating from last night's VP debate.

The winner of last night's Presidential debate was ... (Part II)

Barach Obama, according to this Associated Press story that said:

"Snapshot polls by both CNN and CBS News showed Obama with a clear advantage among voters in how people perceived the debate performance. CBS monitored a roomful of uncommitted voters and when asked who won the debate shortly after it was done, the number of people who raised their hands for Obama was more than double than those for McCain."

The winner of last night's Presidential debate was ...

... the undecided voter. I hate to sound Capraesque about this, but if you went into the debate favoring Republican John McCain, you undoubtedly felt he came out ahead, especially when the topic turned to foreign policy and he kept repeating variations on the phrase "What Mr. Obama doesn't understand ... "You undoubtedly forgave him for messing up the name of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or when he referred to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zaradri as Qadari. (However, I must admit his statement "The average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean. A huge gulag" left me bewildered.)

If you went into the debate supporting Democrat Barack Obama you probably loved the way he seemed to hold his own during the foreign policy debate, where McCain was expected to have a huge advantage, and enjoyed the way he blamed the current financial crisis on programs initiated by President Bush and supported by McCain.

But if you went into the debate without having made up your mind which way you were going to vote, this debate presented a clear difference in the way these two candidates approach the issues the country is facing. It may not have persuaded you to vote one way or another yet -- that may come with future face-offs -- but there was little doubt where these candidates stood and, although they shared the same stage last night, they were not standing in the same spot. Sure, they repeated the same lines they've been using in their stump speeches but seeing the two of them saying these lines side by side was enlightening. Viewers could see that these two individuals would make very different Presidents, especially when it comes to taxes, spending, Iraq and Iran.

It was also clear that these individuals represented two entirely different generations. McCain made repeated references Ronald Reagan, George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, whereas Obama promised voters a budget that could be examined by anyone on a "Google for government."

McCain was the more charming of the two, while Obama was more businesslike than his opponent. Obama was not warm or amusing, but he did come across as Presidential, which he needed to accomplish against a rival who wants to paint him as inexperienced. McCain needed to convince undecided voters that, although he has a product of the past, he has the chops to lead America into the future. It will be interesting to see if he succeeded in that.

To me, this debate signaled the actual start of this Presidential campaign. It will continue next Thursday night with the vice presidential debates.

McCain's really blowing it this time

Republican Presidential nominee John McCain is squandering his opportunity to display real leadership. McCain announced a couple of days ago he was suspending his campaign because the country's financial crisis was more important than partisan Presidential politics. As it turns out, he's playing partisan politics at its worst.

Here's the way the scenario should have unfolded for him. McCain should have flown to Washington, summoned Republican congress members about him and instructed them "Here's what we're going to do." Then he could have waltzed into the White House, told President Bush and the American people he had single handedly saved the United States from financial ruin and gone on to win the election in a landslide.

Instead, he pandered to the far right wing of his party -- that group he sucked up by naming the unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate -- and sat there quietly while they successfully derailed Bush's bailout plan. C'mon, John, if you're going to try to convince us you're suspending your Presidential campaign for the good of the nation than you've got to do a whole lot better than this.

Democratic nominee Barack Obama who stood to lose a lot for putting politics ahead of solving the financial crisis actually came out looking far more the statesman than McCain when Obama said of the failed negotiations: “What I’ve found, and I think it was confirmed today, is that when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, it’s not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be. ... When you’re not worrying about who’s getting credit, or who’s getting blamed, then things tend to move forward a little more constructively.”

And speaking of the bailout plan, I have a major problem with a proposal that only helps Wall Street bankers and does absolutely nothing to help homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages. Afterall, it was the downward-spiraling mortgage situation that caused Washington Mutual to fold yesterday. I could argue that the government has more of a responsibility to help the average American homeowner than it does to the bankers on Wall Street, but I'm just once voice shouting into the wind.

Barack bending the truth as well

I've pointed out instances in which I felt GOP Presidential nominee John McCain has been misleading and downright incorrect in his attacks against his Democratic opponent Barack Obama. But now it's Obama that's going to the darkside in a series of ads that misrepresent McCain's record and stance on certain issues.

An Obama radio advertisement currently running in Wisconsin says McCain "has stood in the way" of federal funding for stem cell research. Wrong. McCain voted against it once, but since 2001 he has consistently opposed President Bush by supporting the funding. It's his running mate, Sarah Palin, who doesn't support it. An Obama ad in Virginia mistakenly says McCain supports tax cuts only for oil companies, when, in truth, his corporate tax break plan covers all companies. Obama has also released ads that misrepresent McCain's positions on Social Security and immigration reform.

This is another reason, however, why it was wrong of McCain to try to cancel tonight's Presidential debates. American voters deserve to hear from the candidates themselves and not form their views from the misleading and false advertising emanating from both camps.

UPDATE: As of this afternoon, the debate is on. (Yeah!) It can be seen beginning about 8 p.m. on the four major television networks, PBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and BBC America.

Why does McCain want a time out?

John McCain's suggestion that the presidential campaign be suspended so that he could return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis is a campaign move in and of itself.

Why does Sen. McCain, who has not cast one single vote in the Senate since April 9, a senator who has missed more votes this session than any other senator but Tim Johnson, who had brain surgery, suddenly feel the need to vote now? What wisdom can McCain, who admitted yesterday he had not even read President Bush's three-page bailout proposal, add to the debate?

I think the answer lies in another story that I ran across just a few minutes ago. According to the conservative leaning Los Angeles Times poll, Barack Obama has recovered from the Palin announcement to open up a four point lead over McCain. I think McCain sees his campaign going in the wrong direction and that's why he is calling a time out.

I would like to remind the GOP presidential nominee that President Bush took time out from running the country to debate John Kerry four years ago. Enough said.

Update: David Letterman really let McCain have it for cancelling his appearance on Letterman's television show saying it was because he was suspending his campaign. Letterman said he smelled a rat, in so many words. You can see it for yourself right here.

Where do the Presidential candidates stand on science issues?

Read this and discover for yourself. The highlights:

Climate change: Both candidates talk of human activities’ warming the planet, with Mr. McCain saying that they “threaten disastrous changes” and Mr. Obama that “they are influencing the global climate.” In terms of 1990 levels of carbon emissions, Mr. McCain would ultimately have the nation’s output drop by 60 percent and Mr. Obama by 80 percent.

Energy: Mr. Obama would increase federal investment in clean energy by $150 billion over a decade, including research on alternative fuels and conservation. Mr. McCain would speed the building of 45 new reactors and make government “an ally but not an arbiter” in developing alternative energy sources.

Stem cells: Both support federal financing for embryonic stem cell research.

The real winner of the Redskins-Giants NFL opener was John McCain

Last week Barack Obama's acceptance speech was watched by more television viewers than any other political convention event ever. That record lasted exactly one week.

According to Nielsen Media Research, John McCain's acceptance speech last night was seen on television by 38.9 million viewers, that's a half a miillion more than watched Obama. And what makes McCain's viewership doubly impressive was that he was going up against the start of the NFL season and since that game featured the Super Bowl champion New York Giants going up against the Washington Redskins, I'm guessing McCain had problems drawing viewers in the nation's largest TV market. (And, besides, all those New Yorkers are Democrats anyway).